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Researchers
at the University of Florida (UF) are boldly going where no one has gone before
– figuratively speaking, that is. In a study published in the Monthly Noticesof the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomers with the Dharma Planet Survey, a
project focusing on low-mass planets around bright stars, have pinpointed Star
Trek’s famous planet Vulcan.

“The new
planet is a ‘super-Earth’ orbiting the star HD 26965, which is only 16
light-years from Earth, making it the closest super-Earth orbiting another
Sun-like star,” said astronomer Jian Ge in a statement. “The planet is roughly
twice the size of Earth and orbits its star with a 42-day period just inside
the star’s optimal habitable zone.”

In 1991,
Roddenberry and three Harvard-Smithsonian astronomers wrote a letter to Sky
& Telescope declaring that if Vulcan were real, it would most likely orbit
the star 40 Eridani A. This very real orange dwarf star exists in the Milky Way
galaxy along with the white dwarf star 40 Eridani B and the red dwarf 40
Eridani C, which together orbit around A. What they hadn’t known is whether a
real planet existed nearby.

“This star
can be seen with the naked eye, unlike the host stars of most of the known
planets discovered to date. Now anyone can see 40 Eridani on a clear night and
be proud to point out Spock’s home,” said Bo Ma, the paper's first author.

But would
this new super-Earth be able to house life? Probably not. Vulcan is around 16
light-years away and weighs about eight times the mass of Earth, meaning its
gravity is probably too strong to support life, reports Science Magazine.
Furthermore, it orbits very close to its orange star, which, although a bit
smaller and cooler than our sun, would still make the planet very hot.

“The
orange-tinted HD 26965 is only slightly cooler and slightly less massive than
our Sun, is approximately the same age as our Sun, and has a 10.1-year magnetic
cycle nearly identical to the Sun’s 11.6-year sunspot cycle,” explained
astronomer Matthew Muterspaugh.

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